> From: "Werner Gansz" <wwgansz@madriver.com>
> Subject: Slashing Bread Loaves
> Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 10:43:18 -0400
>
> Has anyone found a good slashing technique for wet dough?
Yeah, this is one of my "last frontiers" as well. I have also tried water
as lube, having gotten the idea from watching sushi chefs. They dip the
tip of their knife in a bowl of water, stand the knice on its hilt end and
tap the hilt lightly against the work surface to "draw" the bead of water
down the blade, distributing a thin thread of water on the cutting edge.
Unfortunately, water works well as a lube to slash dough only for about
half a slash, and only if the blade is whistle-clean. Even if I
painstakingly wipe the gunk off the blade after every slash, it's still
pretty tough going.
One thing that works somewhat better is to lightly dust the dough's surface
with flour. The flour "flows" around the blade and works its way down into
the cut, keeping things relatively stick-free for a good while, sometimes
for the entire duration of the slash.
It also helps to put no pressure on the knife. I just let the handle rest
lightly on my open palm and "saw" back and forth gently, just letting the
sawing motion and the weight of the blade do the slicing. (I use a Henckel
12" slicer.)
Another thing that I used to do but don't like to so much anymore is to use
scissors. The action of the blades cutting towards each other guarantees
that the dough won't "escape", but the action also "pinches" the dough,
causing a little sharp beak shaped cuts.
--
Andy Nguyen